By Charlene Gatt
NEARLY 1500 Footscray families are being kept in limbo on the public housing waiting list.
The latest public housing waiting list figures for the June quarter show 327 families sitting on the early housing list and 1162 on the wait-turn list.
An extra 69 families have joined the list in Footscray and Flemington since the last quarter.
The early housing list is a register of families who are at risk or recurring homelessness, coping with a disability or who have special housing needs.
Shadow Minister for Housing Wendy Lovell said both the State and Federal governments were to blame.
“The ever-increasing waiting list highlights the Brumby Government’s failure to deliver effective, affordable housing policies over the past 10 years,” Ms Lovell said.
But Rosanna Mazzarino from Melbourne Citymission said there was no one size fits all approach to slashing waiting lists.
“Support is a huge thing; more affordable housing is another. There’s a lot of factors involved. There’s not one answer to resolve the problem. It’s complex and requires a range of interventions,” Ms Mazzarino said.
“It can happen to anyone.”
Melbourne Citymission’s Footscray office operates an interim support service that covers the whole western region. They supported over 100 families looking for housing in the first half of the year.
Ms Mazzarino said for most applicants, their income simply doesn’t meet their needs.
She said the centre had reported an increase in applicants who had had a mortgage or were living in private rental houses but found they couldn’t meet the repayments from rising interest or rental rates.
Domestic violence and relationship breakdowns also drove some clients out of their homes.
Ms Mazzarino said some of their clients were doing it tough on the streets, some were couch surfing at a family member or friend’s house, and some were living in caravan parks, rooming houses, cars, or emergency accommodation.
